The conference doesn't directly address diversity, although there was a five-person panel yesterday, "Reaching Out: the Rest of the Story," that featured speakers of color and talked about race and the Republican party.

The first thing you notice about CPAC, the conservative answer to Comic Con, are the lines.
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But it wasn't exactly advertised. The program described the event as a discussion of "how to bring conservative ideals of liberty, opportunity, and prosperity to non-traditional voting blocs AND teach party and movement leaders how to embrace them."

Conversely, around the same time today, crowds packed into the ballroom for a talk on "Can Libertarians and Social Conservatives Ever Get Along," where Michael Medved declared the idea that any state has ever tried to ban gay marriage to be a "liberal lie."

I asked a few people walking around why they thought the conference didn't attract a more diverse audience.

A college student named Sarah laughed nervously and told me, "I don't know how to answer that, to be honest. If I
give my honest opinion, I don't know if it's going to be politically correct."

Her friend wasn't as hesitant, saying, "Other diversities come in here and they want opportunity, they
want change, and like, we aren't really about change, we're more of like, these
are our viewpoints and our standpoints and we want to stick to them because
they've been working for the last 200 years."

What were those viewpoints?

"I feel like the different views and the different
standpoints and going back to the Constitution and how we're founded, and small government and there's so much to it, and having a Christian
belief makes me want to stand for what the Constitution stood for."

One of the few African-American students in attendance, Rushad Thomas, was careful to emphasize that his conservative views were fiscal in nature.

"I really wish CPAC would be more friendly towards libertarians and groups that are not traditionally right-wing, people like Log Cabin Republicans, or GOProud, or conservative atheists," he explained. "I think its mostly just because the conservative movement is very inward looking, in a sense, and a lot of people see the growing diversity and open-mindedness in society as a bad thing, sadly."

In the CPAC Hub, a smaller room on the first floor of the convention center, near the Sarah Palin's Amazing America booth, is a chalkboard for the Center for American Racial Equality.

An older man from Florida is asking the group's director, Dwayne Carson, how he would react if a white politician used "inappropriate words."

"What would be your recourse, and I guess would
you reprimand me or something like that?"

"Reprimand you for using tough words? Is that what
you're asking? Well, you're entitled to your
opinion. It is your freedom of speech," Dwayne says.

"There's a problem where individuals in this community—especially
CPAC—they have to show up in the minority community," Dwayne explains later. "And I will say this, a lot
of people, even Republican candidates, they're so afraid of coming across as racist that
they decide not to show up."

"Ben Carson's going to tear the place up
tomorrow," his friend Robert interjects.

"For some reason, and I don't understand it—it's easy to blame
Hollywood—but for some reason for African-Americans, it's unfortunate, they
would almost see—and again I have no polling—but they would see this crowd as
some sort of a klan rally, unfortunately. There's some sort of a breakdown in
communication," Robert explains.

"Some of the most passionate conservatives I know
are black," Dan shoots back.

"You've really hit on to something though.
If you could get to the bottom and solve that one," Robert says, trailing off.